StarNews salary database is an embarrassment to journalism

The StarNews recently published the salaries of more than 9,000 people — policemen, firemen, teachers, librarians, custodians, school lunchroom workers and many, many more.

The (flimsy) justification for this new, online database is the public’s right to know.

“Just as executives at big companies are accountable to their stockholders, we believe taxpayers deserve the same level of accountability,” wrote StarNews Executive Editor Robyn Tomlin. “You deserve to know how your money is spent.”

I certainly agree taxpayers (including journalists) should be able to see where tax dollars are going, including salaries. Such information would be critical in determining if a public official was hiring friends and family members at inflated salaries or exposing other types of shenanigans.

But that isn’t the issue here. That information was already publicly available. The StarNews got it by asking for it.

The issue is what the StarNews decided to do with the information after receiving it.

As any business reporter will tell you, good stories start with good data. Having data, like salary information, lets a reporter see trends, identify inconsistencies and ask better questions.

StarNews reporters did some of this, writing stories about how salaries here, particularly among top officials, compare with salaries in other localities.

The problem is the online database that shows the salaries of more than 9,000 people, easily searchable by name.

How is the StarNews practicing good journalism — filling its public watchdog role — by publishing the salary of a particular Cape Fear Community College secretary, New Hanover County social worker or Wrightsville Beach sanitation equipment operator?

Revealing what one elementary school teacher or police officer makes does not tell you anything about the quality of our education or public safety or whether those salary levels are appropriate given our current budget shortfalls.

It just lets that teacher and police officer’s friends, family, co-workers and neighbors rubberneck at a personal piece of information.

Don’t take this as an argument for scaling back the freedom of the press. Journalists and others should have the right to look at such salary information so we can keep elected officials and public employees accountable.

Yet journalists should also feel a sense of responsibility to live up to the ideal of our cherished freedom of the press. Just because we can publish something, it doesn’t mean we should and then hide behind “the public’s right to know.”

We need to practice good judgment.

The StarNews editor alluded in her quote above to what would have been a better approach: Public companies must disclose the compensation of their top five executives. This information is sent annually to shareholders and is easily accessible to anyone online.

Public companies do not disclose the salary of every employee — not even to shareholders.

Still, if the StarNews maintains it made the right decision, I have a proposal:

I’ll buy a share of stock in StarNews parent New York Times Co.

Then I’ll request salary information of every StarNews employee so the Business Journal can publish that database on its web site.

The salary of every StarNews secretary, customer service representative, reporter, graphic designer, salesperson, editor, photographer and custodian would be easily viewable for all their friends, family, co-workers and neighbors.

This would serve no journalistic purpose, but I’m sure a lot of people would read it.

An interesting thing often happens when a reporter or editor becomes the focus of a news story. They gain a different perspective when journalism — particularly bad journalism — is committed on them.

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Rob Kaiser is the publisher of Greater Wilmington Business Journal. He previously worked as a reporter and editor at the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Business Journal, Lynchburg News & Advance and Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly. He can be reached at (910) 343-8600 x204 or rkaiser@wilmingtonbiz.com.